Britain's former Brexit minister, David Frost, has accused the Biden administration of not fully understanding Northern Ireland and the impact of the NI Protocol. He also said Britain does not need lectures from others about the Good Friday Agreement.
During a speech at a leading Conservative think-tank in Washington DC, Mr Frost said the protocol needs changing or replacing, and he urged the British government to unilaterally legislate to do away with part or all of the protocol.
"The protocol is clearly undermining the Belfast Good Friday Agreement - the institutions are not workable. The protocol has destroyed consent amongst unionism for these arrangements and you can't carry on like that.""It is fundamental the British government must be able to govern the same country, and we're getting to a point where that is becoming difficult again, in Northern Ireland.
Mr Frost said:""In the end it has got to be our judgement about what is needed to preserve that agreement and preserve the unity of the country and the consent of everybody in Northern Ireland for these arrangements."The host of the event, Dr Nile Gardiner of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation for Freedom, said it was a matter of British sovereignty and British self determination and the future of the union.
Dr Gardiner, who is British, criticised President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi for linking the protocol to the question of a US-UK trade deal, calling it"a direct intervention in British affairs".